Amoral Victories

Points to our pal Metstradamus for the line of the series and an unsparingly accurate take on the National League’s Arizona franchise.

As a lifelong Mets fan, I’m well acquainted with terrible baseball, and the Diamondbacks are supplying it by the truckload right now. I’ve been listening to Howie and Josh via MLB At Bat, as I’m doing school visits in Louisiana for Jupiter Pirates, and each night they’ve sounded both more pitying and more disgusted. I’ve supplemented Howie and Josh with peeks at footage of temporarily gravel-voiced Gary and the happily returned Keith, who’s the perfect person for chronicling misdeeds at the major-league level.

But I don’t need a TV to know what this kind of baseball looks like. I know Kirk Gibson is staring out at the field with rage churning under his carefully blank expression, just like I know players are plodding off the field, remaining prone for an extra few defeated seconds, and staring into the bowls of their no-longer-needed batting helmets. I know because I remember it from the Joe Torre era, and the George Bamberger era, and the Dallas Green era, and the….

Games like these are rarities to be savored — free passes in the hard slog of a long season. (And even more to be savored when they come on a tough West Coast swing, of which the Mets have approximately a dozen this year.) Even at 2-0 this game didn’t feel particularly close, and Jose Valverde‘s throwing BP to Aaron Hill and Paul Goldschmidt felt more like a long-term problem for the Mets than a short-term threat to a victory. That’s how bad the Diamondbacks are right now.

(By the way, I’m terrified that if Valverde’s struggles continue, our closer will be Kyle Farnsworth. If you’re thinking that’s insane, I’m not going to argue — it should be Gonzalez Germen. But remember that Farnsworth is a Proven Veteran (TM), which I fear in TerryLand means he’ll get every chance to be bad.)

But back to the D’backs and their string of d’bacles. You know what? Too bad for them. I’ve watched the Mets get so thoroughly lost that another win seemed impossible. Nobody took pity on them — they just beat them, as they should have. Moral victories count for nothing — they’re defeats. Amoral victories — beating up on an essentially defenseless opponent — don’t come with a discount. They’re wins, plain and simple. You take them whenever you can, without apology.

4 comments to Amoral Victories

Ojeda on the post game show made the point that although the game felt like it was 15 to nothing, it was only 3 to nothing when Terry Collins made the decison to replace Gee at the start of the 8th.

Ojeda used this to make the point that it’s not just the pitch count, it’s the stress level of each pitch, putting him in direct contradiction to Keith, who was his usual indignant self when Gee was replaced after only 72 pitches.

BTW, much was made on the post game show about this being only the 3rd time in Met History that a Met Starter went 7 or more innings on only 75 pitches or less. But I’m not sure exactly what that means, and they didn’t elaborate, just seemed to be quoting from some Elias press release or something.

Did it mean that only 2 previous Met starters did that regardless of how many innings they finally pitched (i.e. 75 or less thru 7+ even though they pitched more innings than that, or, simply 75 or less pitches in 7+ innings but they didn’t pitch beyond that)?

If it’s the latter, it’s not much of a record, who the F takes out a pitcher who’s pitching a shutout thru 7 innings and only 72 pitches? A Manager of Dillon Gee, that’s who.

Interesting too, since I believe Ron made the point a few games ago that Gee needs to come out when he’s got the lead and is still humming along. Too bad Ron wasn’t in the booth to argue/discuss the point with Keith. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of it.

BTW – in reference to Jason’s BTW – Deadspin is a site that has a whole section labeled LOL Mets, so any of their posts that LOL at any other team and their fans is also a rare win that we should savor.